Eine Karte der brasilianischen Bundesstraßen (das brasilianische Gegenstück zu US-Strecken). Mehrspurige Abschnitte werden rot hervorgehoben

I wonder if they’ll ever attempt to bridge the Amazon river

Already did the six main ones coming out of São Paulo.

– Dutra/Senna: Northeast through the Paraiba valley until Rio. The Senna highway is the second best one at the first kilometers going to SP’s north beaches

– Fernão Dias: Goes to Belo Horizonte, Brazil’s culinary capital. It’s a bit torn down by heavy trucks, but tolls are cheap and you have some of the best countryside landscapes. I always see rolled trucks whenever I go to Minas Gerais

– Anhanguera/Bandeirantes: Link to Campinas and the industrial satellite cities. Best highway I’ve driven for asphalt quality and speeding, but tolls can mean a minimum wage’s workday value for a round trip

– Castello Branco: Named after a de-facto president of the military junta that ruled through the last dictatorship. Goes to the multi-national HQs area and the fancy private neighborhoods, and immediately after that through the most polluted part of Tiête river. Nothing interesting to see there.

– Regis Bittencourt: Done due to my last job at Curitiba, the urbanist capital of Brazil. It’s a really dangerous highway due to twisty and hilly design without not much runoff areas. Some call it the death highway.

– Imigrantes/Anchietta: Pair of highways, old and new one, that descent to the closest beaches. Stunning views for both. The Imigrantes has some historical landmarks dating to the portuguese period and the Anchietta has impressive engineering with bridges simply jumping dense forest.

I’m Argentine, seven years living in Brazil and six of them at São Paulo. Did all of these highways with a 2003 Citroen Xsara coupe.

All that deforestation of the Amazon

That’s surprisingly a lot fewer than I had imagined for a country so large with so many people.